747/777- Coach or Business?

I never been on a 747 or a 777. Although from what I heard buissness class is nice. Although in all honesty I'd rather be flying a 747 or 777. Besides being a passenger on any airliner is just so boring and dull. And being the pilot DOES have its advantages (think stewardesses, and no one jacking up your seat) .

Then agian you also have to bust your ass to fly a 747 or a 777 too.

 

Frankly there is no general rule.

As a matter of fact, most 747 have better interiors than the 777s for a simple reason, the 777 are newer.

Yeah, weird eh ?

Well, they take x years to write them off in the books.
So the interior in a 747 is probably already written off, and updated, while the 777 still fly their first interior. But then again, this is no general rule.

Also, C is better on european companies than on US. Same for F if you ask me.
With lufthansa, the good thing , at least on F, is that all seats are the same, on all planes. Not the scam where you have to fly this very special route to have a seat less than 45 years old.

Anyway, if you wonder if it's worth the extra cost, it ain't. You should probably be able to fetch coach for 600 USD each, while C should cost at least 2500 USD per pax.
That makes almost 4000 USDs you can spend on whatever you want in europe.
And lastly, if you can, with miles or cash, take only the night flight in business. The day flight can easily be managed in coach, you watch 1-2 movies, eat, read a bit and there you are.
Back home.

 

We make several trips to Europe each year and have flown various airlines and aircraft types. Our first consideration is getting out of the US and making any necessitated connections in Europe. If possible we try to do our trips on Airbus aircraft. We much prefer the 2 seats on the sides and yes the coach seats on the aircraft we've flown on recline sufficently. We've been on 777's, 767's and 757's many times and also 747's but the 747 are definitely the aged ones. We don't fly business because the large difference in fare equates into another trip and the one of the worst things to do on a long flight is to consume the "free" alcohol often times a "benefit" of this extra price. Lots of oj and sparkling water for us as once we get to our destination in the am we are off "to the races" (pardon the pun). For us a 10 hour flight is a piece of cake. Most of our trips are weekend jaunts to races at various locations so we DO NOT take anything but a small carry-on roller bag and backpacks. We don't want to spend time reclaiming unnecessary baggage. In fact, when we went to LeMans last month we only had one not very large backpack each for the entire time - Air France really complimented us for doing this!

Carol

 

John,

I've traveled bus. & 1st trans-atl. on 747 & 777's.....

There is no way 1st is worth the extra cost but it sure is nice. You need to think of other benefits also, like the lounge and special check-in, etc.

Also, size comes into play. My wife feels like she is in a business class seat when she is in coach. I on the other hand feel like an NBA basketball player. I also don't like lines and the feeling of being on a bus.

It's up to you......

 

Try this

www.lovemyseat.com

 

Business class is way better than coach. First is slightly better than business, and I certainly would pay the premium for it. Coach seats recline, except for rows in front of the exit rows, but the 777 coach seats didn't look any different than the usual 757 coach seats on domestic NY-LA flights.

Coach seats are just way small for a big guy like myself. I'm 5'7", over 130 lbs.

 

I flew a qantas 747 to hawaii and a 777 to europe both coach. The 777 coach was as cramped as i heve ever been in any airplane. The 747 was slightly better but it was years ago when flights weren't as loaded as they are now and i ended up with a whole row to myself, lifted the armrests and went to sleep with a free fosters.

Diffferent airlines have different configurations for the same model plane. I would try to find a flight at an odd hour/day that might not be full, even though i hear that is almost impossible nowadays. For the price difference i would tough it out.

edit: always try to get the first row of a section, then at least you have leg room.

 

I think it depends more on the airline than the specific airplane, but Lufthansa in general is pretty good. I've flown both business and coach, and, at least to me, business is worth the extra money. For some reason, I ALWAYS end up sitting near a small child when travelling coach - the peace and quiet alone is worth the upgrade to business.

 

only get business if the flight is from the mid-us or LA/west coast to Europe, other wise it is a waste. is DC to germany really 10 hours? if so then i would get business

 

This is also a good site to check out airline seating layout.

http://www.seatguru.com/

Also, If you want to see what the seats look like for a particular airline.

http://www.airlinequality.com/Product/photo_seats.htm


For any flight duration longer than 6 hours, I'd recommend Business Class. Also, people in biz & first class tend to have more respect for their neighbors during the flight.....just my observation.

 

LNR just posted a site ex-plaining what I was going to take about 500 words to explain....thanks !!!

FWIW there is no comparison between aircraft on some airlines..........bizz or first is just plain better, but as each airline has different seat pitch, seat width and seating pattern.........it becomes a matter of cost IMHO as well. The same plane will be differently configured depending upon the airlines load and yield factors...etc..etc.....

I regularily fly from Calgary to Rio de Janeiro.......UAL will give me Economy Plus seating if my upgrades don't go thru (and I'm batting about 50% right now)........so I am happy with that........but paying $1,500 for baggage class versus $4,500 for first class is a no brainer in my books.......I save $3,000 and spend it on the ground.

 

Umm...big? Try 6'3", or my brother, 6'5"!! And business is way too expensive for us, so we're stuck in coach like sardines. I've flown Lufthansa DC-Frankfurt a couple of times-- NEVER AGAIN. Worst airline I've ever flown, hands down.

 

Take the Luthansa. In my experiance, and other peoples experiance (www.airliners.net) Delta is not that great an airline. If you had a choice, I would go with Continental or American over both Luthansa and Delta. Though, my friend and his dad just last week ended up with a whole 747 top deck to them selves on United.